List of Danes

This is a list of notable Danish people.

Actors

Danes

Danes (Danish: danskere) are the citizens of Denmark, most of whom speak Danish and consider themselves to be of Danish ethnicity.

The first mention of Danes are from the 6th century in Jordanes' Getica, by Procopius, and by Gregory of Tours. The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which states how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Denmark has been continuously inhabited since this period; and, although much cultural and ethnic influence and immigration from all over the world has entered Denmark since then, present day Danes tend to see themselves as ethnic descendants of the early tribal Danes mentioned in the historic sources. Whether this is true or not, the Danish Royal Family can certainly trace their family line back to Gorm the Old (d. 958 AD) in the Viking Age, and perhaps even before that to some of the preceding semi-mythical rulers.

Since the formulation of a Danish national identity in the 19th century, the defining criteria for being Danish has been speaking the Danish language and identifying Denmark as a homeland. Danish national identity was built on a basis of peasant culture and Lutheran theology, theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig and his popular movement played a prominent part in the process.

Claire Danes

Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress who first came to prominence with her role as Angela Chase in the 1994 series My So-Called Life. The role won her the first of four Golden Globe Awards. She made her film debut the same year in Little Women (1994). Her other films include Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Rainmaker (1997), Les Misérables (1998), Brokedown Palace (1999), Igby Goes Down (2002), The Hours (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Shopgirl (2005) and Stardust (2007).

From 1998 to 2000, Danes attended Yale University before dropping out to return to acting. She appeared in an Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues in 2000, and made her Broadway debut playing Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 revival of Pygmalion. In 2010, she portrayed Temple Grandin in the HBO TV film Temple Grandin, which won her a second Golden Globe and the first of three Emmy Awards. Since 2011, she has starred as Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland, for which she has won two Emmys and two Golden Globes. She has also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Great Dane

The Great Dane is a large German breed of domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) known for its enormous body and great height. The German name of the breed is Deutsche Dogge, or German Mastiff. The French name is Dogue Allemand.

The Great Dane is one of the world's tallest dog breeds. The world record holder for tallest dog was a Great Dane called Zeus (died September 2014; aged 5), who measured 112 cm (44 in) from paw to shoulder. Great Danes are known for seeking physical affection from their owners.

History

Extremely large boarhounds resembling the Great Dane appear in ancient Greece; in frescoes from Tiryns dating back to 14th–13th century BC. These large boarhounds or Molossian hounds continue to appear throughout ancient Greece in subsequent centuries right up to the Hellenistic era. The Molossian hound, Suliot dog and specific imports from Greece were used in the 18th century to increase the stature of the boarhounds in Austria and Germany and the wolfhounds in Ireland.

Bigger dogs are depicted on numerous runestones in Scandinavia, on coinage in Denmark from the 5th century AD and in the collection of Old Norse poems, known in English as Poetic Edda. The University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum holds at least seven skeletons of very large hunting dogs, dating from the 5th century BC going forward through to the year 1000 AD.

Danes (Germanic tribe)

The Danes were a Northern people residing in what more or less comprised modern-day Denmark in Iron Age Scandinavia. They are mentioned in the 6th century in Jordanes' Getica, by Procopius, and by Gregory of Tours. The Danes spoke Old Norse (dǫnsk tunga), which was shared by the Danes, the people in Norway and Sweden and later Iceland.

In his description of Scandza, Jordanes says that the Dani were of the same stock as the Suetidi ("Swedes") and expelled the Heruli and took their lands.

According to the 12th century author Sven Aggesen, the mythical King Dan gave name to the Danes.

The Old English poems Widsith and Beowulf, as well as works by later Scandinavian writers (notably by Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200)), provide some of the written references to Danes. Archaeology has revealed and continues to reveal insights to their culture, organization and way of life.

Iron Age

In the Nordic Iron Age, the Danes were based in present-day Denmark, the southern part of present-day Sweden, including Scania and Schleswig, now in Northern Germany. In Schleswig, they initiated the large fortification of Danevirke to mark the southern border of their realm. It was extended several times, also in the centuries after the Iron Age.